


The Price of Pride

by RiversEnd



Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-25
Updated: 2015-03-25
Packaged: 2018-03-19 15:53:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 568
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3615645
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RiversEnd/pseuds/RiversEnd
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Character study of Corypheus.  Inspired by my love of literature (specifically Shakespeare) and tragic heroes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Price of Pride

**Author's Note:**

> I may have gone off the deep end here... but I could not get this out of my head. It demands to be written. There is a rather lengthy story to how this came about, but I won't bore you with it. Let's just say that one day, while my son and I were out, we were discussing the game (this happens frequently) and Corypheus as a villain (not so frequently). Somewhere, in the middle of that character discussion, things got somewhat derailed and this came to me. He still thinks I'm crazy...
> 
> Updates will be slow as Harbinger is my main priority. However, please, please let me know what you think and whether or not you'd be interested in exploring this with me.

"Don't do this," the man kneeling on the floor pled.  He was bound, hands and feet, in the center of an elaborate glyph, written in the blood of his family.  He had been forced to watch as his wife and his children were bled, their cries slowly dying as the life drained from them. Smaller, but just as elaborate sigils were painted across his naked body before his own veins had been pierced to pool about him, filling in the empty space of the center of the spell he had fought so hard to stop from being cast.  "Please.  Don't. You'll destroy us all."

"It is a shame that you have betrayed us," the other man replied.

"I betray no one," the man shook his head.  "Your actions will doom us all.  The Golden City is not meant for mortals to enter."

"Why should we care for the will of gods that have abandoned this world?" the cleric replied as he waited for the center to fill with the man's lifeblood.

"You should care that you are tearing open forces of which you do not understand."

"I understand enough," the man spat.  "Dumat will be pleased when we finally rid this world of the pretenders that play at godhood.  They hid behind their golden walls as our gods were condemned to the depths of the abyss. We will throw open their gates, take their power for ourselves, and release the gods of old from their prison. Dumat will reward us for our faithfulness.  We will become gods, ourselves."

"You're mad."

"It is done. You are the final sacrifice." The man's blood had finally filled the center of the glyph and the mage, brandishing a ceremonial dagger inscribed and dedicated to his god, pierced his own wrists, both to drip on the edge of the glyph.  "Your blood will open the way, the price of your betrayal."

"You will regret this," the man said as his life faded, his voice taking on an otherworldly breathlessness.  As the spell was completed a circle of light formed, dark and the color of blood, ringing the elaborate glyph that encompassed the dying man.  "All of you, your blood will be forever cursed," he continued. "But you, Sethius, you will suffer a thousand fold for this.  You will fail.  By your own hubris, you will be bound forever to the corruption of your soul.  Everything you love, everything you cherish will crumble to ruin.  You will fade beyond memory, and when you are nothing, you will be crushed.  The Creator's Vengeance will strike you down." The man's voice faded into the light, his last word but a whisper echoing through eternity.

Slowly, the ring of dark light grew solid, pulsing with the power of ancient words and blood until it formed a glowing column reaching towards the heavens. 

Sethius grinned in victory as the light consumed everything within the glyph, the writing, the blood, the body of one he had once called brother. 

"Come, brothers," he raised his arms towards the portal that now stood open, wrists still dripping with his life's essence.  "Let us claim our place among the gods, for the glory of Tevinter, and the blessing of Dumat."

"For the glory of Tevinter, and the blessing of Dumat," the mages behind Sethius responded as they followed their Conductor into the fiery light and through the gates of the Golden City.

*****


End file.
